October Tenth
by CloudyReflections
Summary: Naruto holds on to a little bit of bitterness about this day. Sasunaru, in honor of our favorite blonde's birthday!


Hello! Sorry I haven't written much for the past few months. My poor little computer, Kisame, is practically comatose, so right now he's at the repair shop. cries Anyway, hope you enjoy this, even though I only took a few hours on it!

Xx gaara the panda xX

* * *

Sasuke hasn't been this weird in a long time. Probably not since he told me he had loved me for 4 years and we started dating. I mean, this guy's pretty icy, or whatever you want to call it, so the whole weird thing just seems hard to believe. At least for me it is.

Anyway, let me grab a little bit more control on my ADHD and bring us back to the situation in which Sasuke is showing off this weirdness. We're sitting in my apartment with giant cups of sugar with some tea on the side to revive us before training begins.

We just finished a B-rank mission last night, which wasn't extremely difficult, but we hadn't gotten back to the village until sometime in the AM's, and Kakashi wouldn't even give us the day off. He claimed we had all gotten lazy over the 3-day break we'd had right before the mission. (Never mind that he never does anything to help us out now that we're jounin.)

Gah, I went off on a tangent again! I'm sorry, really! Sasuke stares out the window, kind of spacey; he's definitely not as focused as he usually is. I'm actually somewhat worried for his health, so I ask, "Hey, teme, what's up?" However much it seems like it, I don't beat around the bush when it comes to this stuff. I'm very direct.

He blinks and (seriously) says, "Um," This is Sasuke! He has never spoken this monosyllable in my presence before. "N-nothing." A stutter?! Oh come on!

Of course he's lying. The teme is good at many things, but he is most definitely not good at lying to me. I continue my pursuit for the truth. "Did you get hurt on the mission?" I put on my best puppy-dog face, using a pathetic tone. I'm really working this, I mean; I never act like that sober.

Sasuke looks down at his sugary tea with something unreadable in his expression. He looks back up saying, "Ur-yeah,"

Could you be more specific, please? Whatever, he's admitted it, so I drop the act. "Go to the hospital, idiot! Have Tsunade check you out!"

Normally he'd put up a fight, or at least pretend to for his own amusement, but he just looks at me oddly, puts his cup in the sink, and then kisses me on my scarred cheek.

Then he vanishes in a puff of smoke, leaving me to wonder what exactly went wrong with our relationship overnight. Did something more happen on the mission than I was aware of? Should I start grilling our friends for anything important he's told them? Should I start preparing myself for a break-up?

Sure, we aren't the perfect couple, what teenagers are? We aren't romance experts, and we never claim to be. We've had fights, and rough patches in our two years together, but this Sasuke has me worried.

I groan loudly, banging my head on the table. As I put my tea in the sink, I notice the calendar, which, as I have been away for two days, has not had the days marked off since Sunday. Using the attached marker, I note that today is Wednesday… which meant that all too soon it would be the tenth.

I swear and kick the counter, only succeeding in leaving a dent in the wood and making my toe ache.

After some major shouting and jumping around, I leave for the usual training ground, where our first survival exercises were held.

No one's there when I arrive in a poof of smoke. It doesn't surprise me that Kakashi is late, but Sakura is annoyingly punctual most of the time. I plop down on the ground, staring around at the trees. I don't know how long I wait until Kakashi shows up. When he does, I stand up and jog over. "You were late again!" I scolded. (Hey, I'm mad; I'll take it out on who I like to, okay?)

"Well there was this dog, see? And he was probably thirsty, so he was leaning over the riv-" My sensei tries to come up with one of his ridiculous excuses, but I interrupt him with a small smack on the arm.

He tells me Sakura is working an extra shift at the hospital, and I tell him Sasuke thought he got hurt on the mission. "So…" I say, looking around the empty field.

Kakashi follows my gaze carefully, before saying quickly, ""Just remembered I have a hot date with Iruka." He vanishes, leaving behind a small cloud that quickly dissipates.

Team eight and team Gai are out of the village; otherwise I'd look for one of my fellow jounin.

By this point, I'm feeling pretty emo, until I remember Shikamaru does some cloud watching around this area. I set off in search of the lazy genius.

After looking around for about ten minutes, I find him on a grassy slope, his eyes tracing the shapes of the clouds. Without glancing back at me, he greets me with a, "Hey, Naruto."

I sit down to his left, silently. I have no doubt Shikamaru already has some idea of why I'm upset. He doesn't always seem like it, but he's very observant.

"Friday?" He guesses, proving my previous statement. I nod glumly.

"And Sasuke's acting all weird, and we didn't even have training today to get my mind off it, so I got up at six a.m. this morning for nothing!" I complain, knowing he's listening even though he has now closed his eyes. "I mean, as if Friday weren't bad enough, it also has everyone around me all messed up!"

Shikamaru nods slightly, commenting, "You know, most people are happy about their-"

"Well I'm not, okay?! Most people don't have the same things to look forward to." I rip out a handful of grass, throwing it back to the ground.

With a sigh that means he's tired of me complaining and feeling sorry for myself, he gets up. "Then prove everyone wrong." He walks off slowly, leaving me to stew in my own misery. I'm a happy person for the most part, but this is all too much to handle in one week.

It didn't seem like the tenth was supposed to happen; things had been going so well. I thought for a while about it, and then got up to train alone until it was off my mind.

* * *

I barely left my apartment on Thursday, and thus saw no one I know. The other villagers didn't act any different than normal, which was extremely odd. Didn't any of them know what tomorrow was?

Around dinner time, I am sitting alone in my kitchen with some instant ramen. Sasuke and I normally eat dinner together, since we both live alone.

There is a tap at the door, and I'm expecting the first signs of tomorrow. But when I open the door, there is nothing except for a note. I look around warily, though I still pick up the small scrap of paper.

Sorry for worrying you.

Pick you up at 7?

-Sasuke

"Sasuke?" I call out, searching the almost complete darkness for his face. I hear a small chuckle, and then a few light steps. Stupid teme!

* * *

The time goes by slowly alone in my small apartment. The whole day, I pace around and glance out the window for signs of trouble. On this very date for the past few years people have either egged this place or tried to set in on fire, so my anxiety is justified.

I attempt to distract myself by guessing where Sasuke will be taking me. He should know what this day means to me. In the past, he's just left me alone.

I try to read a stupid book on chakra control that Sakura gave me last Christmas, but the entire thing is full of words that I simply find too confusing. I throw the book against the wall and eat a small snack of ramen.

It is now 6:15, so I justify starting to shower and change out of the t-shirt and boxers I have been wearing all day.

This doesn't help, as when he knocks on the door I'm sitting at the table, drumming my fingers. "Hi," he says, leaning in to kiss me. I decide that the weirdness is worth it for kisses like that.

"Hi," I reply, interlacing my fingers with his. "Did Tsunade say you were okay?"

"Yeah. Guess we were worried for nothing, huh?" I nod, and we walk down the street, which is oddly empty. I can't help but be paranoid: I learned a long t time ago not to go walking around on this day.

I try to remain silent for a moment, but I can't help it. "Where are we going, teme?"

"My place." That made no sense. If he wanted me to come over, he could have just told me to be there at seven. But I almost forgot myself for a moment. It's the small things like that that make standing for his coldness worthwhile.

I put on a small smile. If Sasuke's going to be happy, and I can try my best to return the favor. The walk only takes a small amount of time, but it's stretched out by my still present paranoia.

He has left the lights off while he was gone, which is odd, seeing as he was only away for maybe fifteen minutes. We walk in, and as he turns on the lights, all of our friends jump out from behind the furniture. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NARUTO!"

For a moment I 'm stunned, but then I frown and say, "Guys, you know I don't like making a big deal out of this!"

Every one seems shocked that I'm not ecstatic, but I mean, if your birthday was the anniversary of something so awful, would you really want people celebrating it?!

Sasuke leans down to whisper in my ear. "Dobe, they just want to show you no one is mad at you." I blush for overreacting. That makes a lot more sense, but how could things have changed so much since last year.

"But the kyuubi… and the fourth…" I stutter, trying to justify my behavior. Sakura steps forward, looking royally pissed.

"IDIOT! We're trying to make this a happy day! I mean, you're 18 now." she scolds, practically smothering me in a hug.

I smile, traces of tears in my eyes. "Okay!" I agree, nodding. It takes a moment for my change in attitude to sink in for everybody, but I'm definitely not faking. I seriously am thankful for their efforts.

To clear away the awkwardness, someone turns up the music, and Sasuke practically forces me to start dancing, even if it's not my favorite pastime.

After the first song, Sakura steals me away, and then Ino, and then Gaara, and then… I kind of lost track of how many people I danced with, but it was widely entertaining, especially after Kiba spiked the punch and started doing some very embarrassing dances that he will most likely regret tomorrow. If he remembers at all.

It turns out that team 8 and team Gai hadn't really been on missions, Sakura had enlisted them on party detail, which I'm sure was much worse than any A-rank mission.

Gaara and his siblings had traveled to Konoha, mostly because of a peace-keeping mission, but as Kazekage, Gaara had ruled this a key part of keeping peace between our villages.

After maybe an hour or two of dancing, Sakura brings out a cake that looks spookily like my head. Why do people think those cakes are good ideas? It's close to cannibalism! But once I get past that, I have a large chunk of my eye, and Sasuke gets my left eyebrow. He barely eats anything since he doesn't particularly like sweet things.

And then she leads me to a large stack of gifts, which I think is going to take up the rest of the party, especially since Lee starts to rant about the youthfulness of each and every one for about five minutes.

The hostess herself presents me a very large pack of ramen that will probably provide me with meals for an entire week. I hug her, and then move on to the last one, which must be Sasuke's. I peel away the wrapping paper quickly, very excited to see want he got me.

And it was a flat cardboard box. "I don't get it." I say, looking at him curiously.

He chuckles, because of course, he knew this would puzzle me, damn him! "It's the first of many you will need… since you'll be coming to live with me."

I blush, suddenly very aware of the fifty or so other people watching. "Um… I guess the only answer to that is yes, I will move in." Of course the teme has to put in a way where I can't turn him down. (Not like I would have said no, but the option would be appreciated.)

Sasuke kisses me, and suddenly everyone's attention is elsewhere, suddenly very into the weather or whatever their small talk is about. Who ever came up with the whole French-kissing idea is a genius in my book.

-fin

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Hope you enjoyed it, and I apologize for any typos, as I only went through this really fast. Please review for a starving writer? I even missed part of Chuck and all of Heroes for this, and I have a rough draft for school to write, so just take take into consideration. (Yes, you. Over there. The one who think the little button is just a decoration.)  
Xx gaara the panda xX


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